1. Technical Field
The invention relates to electronic equipment that is used in connection with boats and ships. More particularly, the invention relates to a sonar mount for use with a boat or ship.
2. Description of the Background Art
Sonar surveys are an important part of ship navigation, dredging compliance, finding underwater objects, maintaining safe waterways and mapping. The usefulness of sonar is directly affected by the accuracy and precision with which the sonar head is mounted to the boat or ship. Sonar equipment typically consists of an electronics unit, which is placed over the side of the boat for the operator to use, and a sonar head unit, which is placed below the waterline. Accurate and precise repeatable placement of the sonar head is critical to correct operation of the sonar equipment. Most sonar surveys are done by boats where the sonar mount is added to the boat rather than at the time of vessel manufacture. Often when a survey vessel has been outfitted for sonar surveys, then a provision must also be made for removing or otherwise relocating the sonar head from the boat when the boat is placed on a trailer or when rafted or docked. This is because of road width restrictions and because the sonar head typically projects well below the bottom of the boat's hull and, as such, would prevent the boat from being trailered without first removing or relocating the sonar head. This introduces many problems with regard to recalibrating the sonar head to the boat when it is replaced. Further, the sonar head is typically part of a heavy mounting assembly and, as such, positioning and replacing the sonar head is not a trivial task. This is further complicated by the fact that it is desirable to have a “break away” method of protecting the expensive sonar head that safely rotates the unit in the case it runs into an underwater or other obstruction. Otherwise, damage to the sonar head can exceed the value of the vessel.